CHELMSFORD -- A long vacant Katrina Road brownfield site will become a school bus terminal, maintenance and driver training facility for North Reading Transportation, a company that has generated headlines in Lowell.

The Methuen-based school-bus company's proposal was approved by MassDevelopment and town officials, who deemed it to be the most advantageous for the 3-acre parcel at 27 Katrina Road.

"We are excited," NRT owner John McCarthy said Tuesday. "It's going to be great addition to the community."

NRT's offer was selected from a field of three proposals. The others were from neighboring Chadwick BaRoss, a heavy-machinery company interested in expanding its operations, and UTEC, the Lowell-based nonprofit that sought to create a mattress-recycling facility.

Town Manager Paul Cohen said MassDevelopment reviewed the proposals and signaled it would support any of them and release the $1.3 million needed to remediate the former Silicon Transistor Corp. site, taken by the town through tax title in 2006, of chlorinated volatile organic compounds. He said he felt the NRT proposal solved multiple issues for the town and had the highest expected financial return in the long run.

Selectmen approved the bid award on a 4-0 vote Sept. 25.

Cohen said remediation will take 10 months to a year. Once the site is clean, the purchase-and-sale agreement will close, he said.

McCarthy did not offer a disposition cost, but will bear the annual environmental monitoring costs, estimated at $25,000 to $30,000 per year for 20 years.

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He said he sees the 10,000-square-foot facility as a benefit not only to NRT but to Chelmsford and the surrounding area. Chelmsford will enjoy additional real-estate and excise-tax revenue, and area residents will have access to jobs and training, McCarthy said.

Many factors contribute to a shortage of drivers, including a lack of skills, licensure and difficulty accessing training, he said. McCarthy said he hopes to break down some of those barriers with the new facility, which would allow the right candidates to earn commercial driver's licenses and be paid for up to 60 hours of training if they sign a nine-month contract with the company.

"It's a great resource for people to get another career, or for someone that's retiring it's a great source to obtain a decent week's pay or even for a mother to be able to pick up side work," he said.

McCarthy said the facility will allow him to hire 10 new drivers needed in the area and three mechanics to start. He said he hopes a recent increase in hourly driver pay -- $18 to $21.50 in Lowell and $18.60 to $20.50 in Chelmsford -- will help attract more drivers.

The news comes just as the Lowell School Committee is considering dropping Dracut-based SP&R Transportation for its special-education busing contract in favor of NRT, which provides the rest of its buses, after an SP&R driver left a 5-year-old special-needs child on a bus for five hours last week. The committee postponed a decision until next week.

In July, a different transportation contract with NRT previously approved by the Lowell School Committee was thrown out due to concern the $12.6 million contract's language was written to preclude other companies from bidding. Despite different specifications, NRT remained the only bidder for the contract. The second bid in August asked for $134,000 more for their service and used older buses.

Once the plans on Katrina Road are underway, NRT will relocate about 35 Chelmsford buses from the Chelmsford Forum parking lot. It will also move some of the buses now housed at the busy Pevey Street yard in Lowell to ease crowding there. Any new Lowell buses would likely be housed in Chelmsford.

Bus parking at the Chelmsford Forum has been problematic due to the expanding nearby wetland, Cohen said. Aside from Katrina Road, there is nowhere else in town the buses could be stored, he said. If the buses had to be moved outside of Chelmsford, the town would lose out on the excise taxes, Cohen said. Instead, the town will retain and grow its bus excise taxes by an estimated $50,000, he said.

McCarthy said he's still determining which buses will be moved from Lowell to Chelmsford, but they're unlikely to be current Lowell Public Schools buses. He said he may move about 10 to 14 buses dedicated to Greater Lowell Technical School or UMass Lowell to Chelmsford, but needs to make sure he meets all contractual obligations before doing so.

NRT expressed an interest in leasing the Katrina Road property prior to taking possession, but brownfields regulations may prevent that from occurring, Cohen said. Under the statute, as long as the town does not derive a beneficial use while holding the tax-possession property, it is not responsible for the cleanup, he said. Cohen said town counsel is exploring the issue with MassDevelopment and the Department of Environmental Protection.

"No one in their right mind would risk that type of exposure for a limited duration of a lease payment," Cohen told selectmen. "Prior to that going forward, we would have to have ironclad guarantees, otherwise it's just not going to happen."

Cohen acknowledged Chadwick BaRoss' desire to expand within the community, but its proposal, while offering $200,000 for the property, would have required the town to take on the entire cost and liability of ongoing environmental monitoring. He said Chelmsford will work with the company to try to accommodate its needs on Katrina Road or elsewhere in town.

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